Mixed media: David Hockney in his London studio with his iPhone, which has its own mini easel

Hockney has had the phone for only four months, but he has already
turned it into a hi-tech canvas. It even fits neatly on a miniature
easel in his London studio.

He has painted flowers and drawn landscapes on the iPhone, which is
manufactured by Apple and lets users input commands directly on the
colour screen with their fingers.

As well as being a mobile phone, the iPhone takes pictures, plays
music or video and acts like a handheld computer with high-speed
internet access.

'I lie in bed and send illustrated art lectures to friends and also my own iPhone paintings,' said Hockney. 'I like to draw flowers by hand on the iPhone and
send them out to friends so they get fresh flowers. And my flowers
last!'

Hockney is not the only one to have been swept up in the iPhone phenomenon, which allows users to download thousands of applications.

They include everything from video games to translation dictionaries, restaurant finders, weather reports and live train updates.

Modern art: Hockney is embracing new technology with his art

So versatile is the iPhone that some applications - or apps -
utilise software that allow it to be used as a spirit level or even a
musical instrument such as a flute.

Hockney himself uses applications allowing him to play the keyboard and harmonica.

Of course the artist is not exactly new to embracing the wonders of technology.

He has executed prints by fax, used Polaroid photographs in collages
and in 1985 he was commissioned to draw with a computer program called Quantel Paintbox.

Now, as well the iPhone, Hockney has also been using a more typical
computer screen as a canvas, drawing with a stylus on to an electronic
tablet plugged into his computer.

Hockney's latest: The Atelier March 17th 2009 was made in Yorkshire and combines landscapes and portraits. The full work is 27 feet long and is created from 42 photographs manipulated into one image

Those prints form part of a new exhibition, Drawings In A Printing
Machine, at the Annely Juda gallery in Mayfair. Speaking about it last
week the artist, who thinks calling his work digital art is as absurd
as calling traditional drawing pencil art, said: 'The computer is a
terrific medium.

'You miss some things, you miss texture for example, but you gain a
lot. In a watercolour, once you put things down, that's it. With this
you can move things about, change, make them bigger and smaller.'

For the moment his computer-created art is being printed in limited
editions, which will sell for thousands of pounds. That is considerably
less than some of his more traditional paintings fetch.

In two weeks a painting entitled Beverly Hills Housewife will be
auctioned in New York and is expected to make up to
£7million. The current record for a Hockney was set in London
three years ago when The Splash sold for £2.9million.